Is Rupert Murdoch going to split up News Corporation? Yes. Probably
THERE are several stories around today that Rupert Murdoch is warming to the idea of splitting up News Corporation. This isn’t a new thing at all: it’s that Rupe is warming to it that is:
Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp could be split into two companies, separating its publishing assets from its entertainment arm, it has been claimed.
Sources say a final decision on the New York-based firm had yet to be made, but that Murdoch was warming to the idea.
The real point behind this is that newspapers (and to some extent book publishing) are a dying business. Films, TV and satellite however are vigorously growing ones. There’s no real reason why the two should be inside the same company. And good reasons why they should not. Quite apart from anything else, sweating out the last profits from a dying business is a very different thing from making the needed investments to enable a growing one to continue growing.
Further, the shareholders in the company might well prefer to own only one part of the two: if you split the companies then they can do that.
The reason it hasn’t happened as yet is that while the younger Murdochs, plus most of the corporate executives, think it’s a fine idea, Rupert himself was against it. For he’s really a newspaper man at heart, the whole empire was built on newsprint.
But as the stories now going around are saying, he seems to be coming round to the idea of a split.
Posted: 26th, June 2012 | In: Money Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
